Hiding
by Litanya
Summary: Somone is sick and is hiding it from the other digidestined. Why won't they tell anyone what is happening to them? Why are they hiding? Oneshot


Litanya: This is the fifth one-shot that I have started in the past two weeks and I have only posted one of the up.  
  
Tai: That's because you change your mind too much.  
  
Litanya: At least they have all been about you. . .  
  
Tai: Yeah, but in most of them I was dead or half dead or something bad had happened to me! Why are you so mean to me!  
  
Litanya: Well, for something different, you are not the main character in this fic, and neither is Sora.  
  
Tai: WHAT? Please tell me that this fic is still a Taiora! Please!  
  
Litanya: Just joking, of course you are the main character. This fic is AU, as usual. And yes, this fic IS a Taiora in a strange way, so all you Sorato fans can read and weep!  
  
Tai: Yeah! And please remember that digimon does not belong to Litanya and she makes absolutely NO money on this!  
  
Hiding  
  
Tai slipped into the room, unnoticed by all present.  
  
"We've got to tell him, he has a right to know! We can't keep him hoping when we know that there is no chance," Tai bowed his head slightly, knowing that they were talking about him. His mother and father were actually speaking to each other without yelling. That was something new. They had divorced when he was eight and his father had gotten custody of Kari, Tai's little sister. Tai lived quite happily with his mother, although he missed his little sister dearly.  
  
"I know, but it would hurt to see him lose hope! Hope seems to be the only thing that is keeping him alive," his mother started to cry and Tai almost went over to comfort her, but then he would learn nothing. They wouldn't tell him what was going on until they had discussed it between them. It was his life they were talking about, but he was always the last to know.  
  
"We can't keep on lying to him Mari! We have to tell him the truth sometime, or he's going to hate us until. . . we don't want him to hate us, do we? He will unless we tell him the truth now, so he knows what to expect," Tai saw that his father seemed on the verge of tears too and he desperately wished that this would all disappear. If it wasn't for him, his parents would still be together and Kari would be growing up in a house with two parents, instead of one.  
  
"Can't we wait until he has had his birthday? I just don't want him to worry on his birthday," Mari Kamiya sobbed, dabbing at her eyes with tissues. Tai hated this. He hated that they were fighting about him *again.* He just wished that it was all over, so they wouldn't argue anymore.  
  
"Wait for my birthday to tell me what? That it won't go away and the treatment isn't working? I could have told you that without taking any tests," he said quietly, stepping out of the shadows, "You are arguing about telling me that I am going to die because it keeps on advancing. Please don't argue about that, I already know. It is happening to me after all." His parents stood still, staring at him in some kind of shock. They stayed that way for about twenty seconds before his mother burst into tears again. This time Tai crossed the room to where she was sitting on the couch and sat next to her, giving her a hug. He knew that it was hard for her, to know that her twelve year old son was going to die before she was. Tai could see that she was trying to stop crying, but she couldn't.  
  
"How did you know that Taichi?" his father asked softly, still standing where he had been when Tai had first spoken, "The doctor said that he hadn't told you." Tai looked up from beside his mother and shrugged.  
  
"It's easy to tell. You only come around and speak to mum when something bad is happening. Besides, I could tell that it wasn't working. I've been feeling more tired lately," he told them this as if it didn't really matter, "Kari doesn't know about this, does she?" His voice suddenly became more anxious as he asked this, hoping that they hadn't told his nine year old sister yet. It was true that he had been battling with leukemia for four years now, but he didn't want to worry little Kari, because she worried about him enough already and she didn't know that he was sick.  
  
"No, we haven't told her, but only because you requested that she didn't know. You're going to have to tell her soon Tai, you can't protect her from this forever," his father replied, meeting Tai's gaze with his own. He was saddened by the wisdom that seemed to be held in the twelve year old's eyes, and the fearless spark that never seemed to go out. He dropped his gaze and looked at the ground. He didn't see how his son could be so brave and accept his situation without a protest. It was too much for Alexi Kamiya to bear.  
  
"I had better get going. I'll see you later Taichi," he ruffled his son's hair before he left the apartment, not saying anything to Mari. Tai kept on trying to comfort his mother until she finally stopped crying and smiled sadly.  
  
"You should be resting. You said before that you've been more tired lately. You should be sleeping now," the boy nodded slowly and got to his feet, only to be hit by a wave of dizziness. He sat back down again quickly, before he lost his balance, "Are you okay Tai?"  
  
"I'm okay, just a bit dizzy, that's all," he managed a small smile and Mari had to take a deep breath so that she did not burst into tears again.  
  
"Here, you can sleep on the couch, then when you wake up hopefully your dizzy spell will be over," Mari reached down under the couch and took out the blanket and pillow that they kept under there just in case Tai had to stay on the couch for some reason.  
  
"Thanks mum," he said as he lay down, hating how he collapsed like this every so often. He wished that he was stronger, wished that he had never had leukemia. But he would rather keep the disease than wish it onto his friends or family. Sometimes he would have a dark thought, like 'Why can't Matt have this instead of me?' but he would immediately yell at himself afterwards. He wouldn't wish this onto anyone, even Matt, his rival. He just wished that he didn't have it either. He drifted to sleep quickly, his tired body relaxing slowly as he began to dream of a life without leukemia.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I'm sorry Sora, Tai's asleep at the moment so he can't come to the phone," Tai awoke to his mother talking on the phone. Upon realising that it was Sora, Tai tried to get his mother's attention.  
  
"Mum, I'm awake now. I can talk on the phone," he said as he blearily wiped the sleep out of his eyes. He was feeling better now, not too much better, but at least he was feeling better than before. His mother heard him and spoke again into the phone, before coming over to the couch and handing him the cordless phone.  
  
"Hey Sora," Tai said, leaning his head against the top of the couch still feeling weak, but determined to talk to his best friend, "How are you?"  
  
"I should be asking you that question! Why weren't you at school today? I'm fine by the way." Tai sighed. He hated making up lies, but he didn't want to have to sit with everybody heaping sympathy on him. He just wanted to be treated like everybody else, which wouldn't be possible if anyone knew about his disease.  
  
"I just have another minor cold, I should be back tomorrow. But you know how my mother gets worried," his mother raised her eyebrows at his comment, before turning and leaving the room. She didn't really approve of him keeping secrets from his friends, but she understood why he wasn't telling them. She leaned her head against the wall once she was out of his sight, wishing that it was just a dream that she would awake from and find her little eight year old son healthy. But she could only wish. Tai watched his mother go, feeling a little guilty.  
  
"Just another minor cold? Tai, you've had about thirty of those this year. You should go to the doctor and get it checked out. You could be really sick you know," he could detect the worry in her voice and he knew that he was going to have to tell a convincing lie to get her to stop worrying.  
  
"We went to the doctor and he ran some tests. There is nothing wrong with me apart from the fact that I have a weak immune system," he fingered the back of his hand, where his vein was. That was where they put the chemotherapy needle, to inject the chemicals into his body. The chemicals that were supposed to be killing off the cancer cells. The chemicals that had stopped working.  
  
"Oh, well as long as you're alright," she didn't even bother to try and keep the suspicion out of her voice; she knew that something was not right. As much as Tai had tried to deny it over the past year, she knew that something was wrong with him. And that scared her. She didn't want anything bad to happen to her best friend and she wished that she could take whatever was happening to him and place it on herself. That was the bond of friendship; you would do anything to save your friend from being in pain.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. So, what happened at school today," he listened to her reply, a headache forming as he listened He ignored it, knowing that it wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried.  
  
"The soccer game we played after school was a joke! We lost by so much because you didn't play. . . We need you to play otherwise we always get beaten. Nobody knows what to do when you're not there and everybody gets confused and runs about like a headless chicken! You need to get better soon so that we can win again!" Tai laughed at the image of his soccer team running around like chickens and thoughts of his headache receded into the back of his mind. Talking to Sora could always do that. She made him forget about his illness and made it seem like he was going to live forever.  
  
"Hey Tai, do you want to come to the park tomorrow after school? Matt, Kari and T.K are going to be there. Do you want to come?" he hesitated for a second. He knew that it wouldn't be the best thing for him to do, but he wanted to go so badly.  
  
"I'll just ask my mum. Wait a minute," he called for his mother and she came. He asked her about going to the park and she hesitated, just like he had. "Please?" Tai pleaded, knowing that going to the park would be one of the last things that he did. It was his birthday in two days time and for some reason Tai felt that his illness was going to prevail over him very soon.  
  
"Okay, you can go. But *only* if I can come and supervise. I don't want you to collapse in the middle of the park with no one who knows what to do there with you," Tai smiled happily and repeated the verdict to Sora.  
  
"Yay! Bring your soccer ball, okay? We'll play soccer together and beat the three of them together! I've got to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow!" Tai said goodbye and hung up the phone, his headache returning to the front of his mind as he did so. He refused to say anything to his mother though, because he knew that she would change her mind about letting him go to the park if he said anything. He stood up and put the phone down. Just doing that little bit of exercise made him feel weak again. It must have been really bad. He refused to sit down though, as his mother would suspect something, so he walked aimlessly around the apartment, only managing to keep his balance by using the wall as a support. He went to bed early that night because his mother made him, to give him extra energy for the next day.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Tai was regretting that he had promised to go to the park the next day as he made his way there with Sora, Matt, Kari and T.K. His balance wasn't that good and he kept on stumbling on the footpath. His mother was going to meet them at the park and Tai was considering telling her that he needed to go home.  
  
"Are you looking forward to your birthday Tai? Tomorrow you'll be a teenager. Isn't that cool?" Matt said, not noticing that his friend was hardly keeping himself from falling over.  
  
"Yeah, it's really cool! My mum said that I can stay up half an hour extra because I'm a teenager!" Tai grinned his lop-sided grin, whilst trying to maintain his balance. It was a huge task for him just to do that.  
  
"Being a teenager isn't that exciting," Sora told them confidently, "All being thirteen does to you is let people call you a teenager and you feel a little older. That's all." She had turned thirteen the previous month, so she knew what she was talking about. She, unlike Matt, had noticed how many times Tai had stumbled and she also noticed that his cheeks were a little flushed, indicating that he had a small fever. But she didn't say anything, knowing that Tai would deny anything that she said. They reached the park and the two younger children raced off to the swings.  
  
"There goes our idea of playing soccer against them," Tai remarked as he watched his little sister burst out laughing at something that T.K said. He suddenly knew that the two youngsters would end up dating one day, would probably end up married. 'And I won't be around to see it,' he thought sadly, before mentally shaking all of those sort of thoughts out of his head. He was there to have fun, not wallow in self-pity.  
  
"Oh well, we can still play soccer. Well, we can play two on one. Which side do you want to be on?" Sora asked the two boys. Tai shrugged, not really caring. His vision started to blur, so he looked at the ground, trying to get rid of the blurriness.  
  
"I'll go against the two of you. You'll probably thrash me, but I want to see how I go against the best two soccer players in the school," Matt took the ball, as he would start with it as he was by himself. Mrs. Kamiya arrived and sat down nearby, worriedly watching her son. She could see that he was worse than usual, but she couldn't tell him to go home. Before Matt kicked the ball to start off the game, Tai had a coughing fit. He couldn't stop coughing for about two minutes and it scared Mrs. Kamiya.  
  
"Are you okay Tai? Are you sure that you don't want to go home?" she asked her son, as she ran over to see if he was okay. He thought for a second before shaking his head.  
  
"No, I'm fine. Something just flew down my throat. I'm okay," he lied, wiping his hand on the edge of his red t-shirt. He wiped his hand discreetly, trying to avoid them noticing that he had coughed up blood. His mother looked worried, but she went back to the bench and sat down again. Matt seemed to buy Tai's excuse, but Sora was watching him worriedly too.  
  
'Great, the only reason I'm not telling people about my illness is to keep them from worrying, but Sora is still worrying about me anyway. Oh well, soon she won't have to worry about me. No one will,' he thought, turning back to Matt and gave him a signal that he was ready. They started the game, but they had only been playing for about one minute before Tai started to feel really weak again. He refused to stop playing though, and kept on with the game. His vision became blurred again and the world was spinning, but Tai still didn't stop playing. He knew that what was going to happen was going to happen even if he stopped playing. After playing for another five minutes, Tai collapsed on the ground. Sora and Mrs. Kamiya both cried out and they ran over to him. Mari checked his pulse and then quickly got out her mobile phone. Kari and T.K jumped off the swings and ran over to where Tai was lying unconscious.  
  
"What's wrong with Tai? Is he okay?" Kari asked, her eyes filling with tears. Sora and Matt couldn't answer her. They didn't know what was wrong with Tai, but from the way that Mari was pacing whilst she was on the phone, it didn't look too good. When Mari hung up the phone she was greeted with four pairs of questioning eyes.  
  
"What's wrong with Tai, Mrs. Kamiya?" Sora asked politely, watching as Mari bent down and knelt next to her son. Mari didn't answer for a minute, she just sat and watched Tai sleep, until Sora repeated her question.  
  
"Tai has acute leukemia. We found out about it when he was eight. He went into remission two years ago and we thought that he would be okay. But it came back again last year and the chemotherapy stopped working. The doctors told us that he was going to die anytime soon, but I didn't want to believe it. Then Tai told me that he could feel himself getting worse, but he only told me yesterday. I didn't expect him to get this bad already," she broke down in tears and Matt and Sora were in shock. T.K and Kari didn't know what was going on, but since her mother was crying and her brother was unconscious, Kari started to cry too. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later, causing a lot of people to stare.  
  
"Is anyone here family?" the ambulance officer asked gently, knowing that they were all upset. Mari nodded and took Kari's hand.  
  
"Sora, Matt and T.K, you'd better go home or phone your parents to get them to bring you to the hospital," Mari and Kari climbed into the back of the ambulance and it left the other three children staring after them.  
  
'Please be okay Tai, I love you too much to lose you,' Sora thought to herself as tears ran down her cheeks. She didn't hear Tai's thoughts as the ambulance drove off, though they were directed at her.  
  
'I'm sorry Sora, but I have to go. I'll always love you too,' Tai thought as he felt the ambulance drive away from the park, 'I'll always love you.'  
  
Taichi Kamiya died on November 14, 2000, the day before his thirteenth birthday after a four year battle with leukemia. He is remembered as a great friend, brother and son who never seemed to give up, even when his battle with illness was really hard. May his soul rest in peace.  
  
Sora Takenouchi died at the age of sixteen after being hit by a drunk driver. She was reunited with Tai in heaven and they watched over all of their friends and family together, just the way they wanted to.  
  
The End.  
  
Okay, that was sad. Well, I thought so anyway. I seem to be pulling off a lot of sad fics at the moment, but it's just because I am going through a little period of depression. Nothing else. Please review this, I researched leukemia for ages to get information on the symptoms! This fic is dedicated to anyone who has been touched by cancer of any sort, whether you have had cancer yourself or if you know anyone who has had it, I dedicate this fic to you! Cancer is a terrible thing and many people lose people that are special to them to cancer. Please review, and thank you for reading. 


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